The Acali Experiment: Five Men and Six Women on a Raft Across the Atlantic for 101 Days

Dust jacket notes: "The Acali Experiment, an international bestseller, is the story of an unprecedented group experiment in human behavior, and a unique 101-day sea adventure: the Acali raft expedition of 1973. As a volunteer participant in Thor Heyerdahl's Ra I and Ra II papyrus raft expeditions, anthropologist Santiago Genoves realized that a minimal and isolated raft at sea provides an ideal laboratory of human behavior. To explore the sources of violence and conflict under such stressful and inescapable conditions, Genoves undertook the building of a raft and conducted a worldwide search for the eleven volunteers of contrasting backgrounds - Algerian, Israeli, American, Japanese, Swedish, Cypriot, Mexican, Uruguayan, and Angolan - who would float from the Canary Islands to Mexico on a raft measuring only 40 by 23 feet, with a cabin less than 13 feet square. The public speculated wildly about what would happen on board the 'sex raft' - as it was immediately labelled by the international press. This is the story of what did happen, from the inside, and what it signified outside. More than one sociologist remarked that 101 days at sea would be equivalent to twelve to fifteen years on land, and that prediction is certainly proven true as Genoves' log of the days on board unfolds. Three times the raft is on the brink of destruction; one participant attempts suicide; one contemplates murder; one is stricken with appendicitis. Isolated amid the beauty of the ocean, with no turning back, the volunteers are confronted with harrowing natural dangers - sharks, Portuguese men-of-war, hurricanes, and more - as well as human ones. Through a wealth of research and tests carried out under the supervision of a body of 100 specialists, Genoves obtained uniquely valuable data. It yields striking and often surprising insights into the relation between aggression and sex, family, personality, space, roles, leadership, intelligence, communication, and more...."